In my last blog we talked about different things to improve your handgun shooting. We talked about custom sights as well as grips, and mostly the never-ending need for practice.

Now, there are some things we can do with the sights to improve our sight picture without going all the way to custom sights. It’s called nail polish. A black front sight and rear sight as well, can make good sight alignment tough at best. One thing I have done for years is paint the front sight with nail polish.

Not the entire sight, but just enough to completely fill in the rear notch for a 6:00 o’clock hold. Nail polish comes in so many colors that it is an easy task to find a color that your eyes see better. I go one step farther and put two tiny dots on my rear sight. One on each corner on the top of the blade. I use white for this and blaze orange for the front.

My eyes see these colors the best especially in low light conditions while hunting. If you want your front sight to be even brighter, lay down a coat of white first, then apply whatever color you have chosen. The white undercoat will make it even brighter.

The next thing we need to look at is how we grip the handgun. I like to get as high up on the backstrap as possible. The reason for this is that it will reduce the muzzle jump somewhat and also give more of a straight back recoil. For me, the better that I control the muzzle jump, the better my accuracy.

Another thing I want to mention is finger placement on the trigger. The most accepted way is to pull the trigger with the first joint of your trigger finger. I used this method for years, but never had the best luck with it. I have long fingers and for me, this wasn’t natural. All to often I would have shots go to the right for me. When I grip a handgun high on the backstrap and extend my finger thru the trigger guard, the most natural placement for me was using the second joint on my trigger finger. This gave a more natural straight back pull. The point here is to experiment and try different things. It doesn’t matter if it breaks all of the accepted rules or not. If your accuracy improves, that is the bottom line.

If you take up deer hunting with a handgun, I can promise you that your first one will be very satisfying experience. It won’t matter if it is a doe or a small buck, it will still be a trophy to you. And that first deer steak will be the best tasting one you have ever had.